On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, a significant number of Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been relocated from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi. The inhabitants of the eastern part of the Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes, were suzerain nations with established tribal governments, well established cultures, and legal systems that allowed for slavery. Before European Contact these tribes were generally matriarchial societies, with agriculture being the primary economic pursuit. The bulk of the tribes lived in towns (some covering hundreds of acres and containing thousands of people) with planned streets, residential and public areas. The people were ruled by complex hereditary chiefdoms of varying size and complexity with high levels of military organization.[1]

By the middle of the 19th century, the United States Government had started leasing land from the Five Civilized Tribes (ex. Choctaw and Chickasaw[2]) in the western, more arid, part of Indian Territory. These leased lands were used to resettle several Plains Indian tribes that tended to be nomadic in nature, embracing the Horse culture. At the extreme, the Comanche society was based on patrilinear and patrilocal extended family sharing a common language; they did not developed the political idea of forming a nation or tribe until their relocation to Indian Territory.

During the Civil War, the Union Congress passed a statute that gave the President the authority to suspend the appropriations of any tribe if the tribe is “in a state of actual hostility to the government of the United States… and, by proclamation, to declare all treaties with such tribe to be abrogated by such tribe”(25 U.S.C. Sec. 72).[4]

Many of the Reconstruction Treaties were titled with the phrase “Treaty of Washington.” These treaties replaced the treaties that were voided when the tribes signed treaties with the Confederacy. Some Indian tribes signed treaties at the Ft. Smith conference. The Five Civilized Tribes agreed to draft treaties, but final treaties were signed in Washington, D.C. during the year of 1866.

The Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations had a single Reconstruction Treaty, the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington (1866).[32]in which they sold land west of the 98 longitude to the United States for $300,000. Much of this land was previously “leased” to the Federal Government and was the home of other Indian tribes.

Cherokee gave up their “Neutral Lands” in southeastern Kansas and the Cherokee Strip, to be sold to the highest bidder for not less than $1.25 an acre. They also agreed sell land to the Osage Nation and to allow the federal government to settle other tribes in the Cherokee Outlet in exchange for payment made by the government to the Cherokee Nation.

WERE THE BLACK FEET AFRICAN SLAVES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLDDjSXSwQ4United States v. Blackfeet Tribe of Blackfeet Indian Reservation, 364 F.Supp. 192, 194 (D.Mont. 1973) (“[A]n Indian tribe is sovereign to the extent that the United States permits it to be sovereign – neither more nor less.”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLDDjSXSwQ4

This clip is provided courtesy of the Rock Newman Show. Dr. Claud Anderson discusses the 1866 Indian Treaties and what it means for Black people.

In November 2006, The Harvest Institute joined with the Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund to form The Harvest Institute Freedman Federation (HIFF). The new organization filed a ground-breaking legal complaint in the United States Federal Court in Washington, D.C. against the United States Department of Interior and its Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). This is one of the most important economic justice actions the Harvest Institute has taken on behalf of Black America and we are Playing to Win.